Band of Brothers: Episode 9, Why We Fight

NOTE: "Band of Brothers" is a highly realistic World War Two miniseries from HBO in 2001. Part of the "realism" is the profanity used; so, if you are sensitive to such language, the miniseries is definitely not for you. Also, there are numerous highly bloody scenes of killed or wounded soldiers, and scenes of people in a concentration camp, who have been the subject of horrendous treatment. So here too, if you are sensitive to these kinds of scenes, it is probably a good thing if you skip viewing the miniseries. As for this article and those I'll be doing about the miniseries, I have tried to keep things from being too blatant.

This very realistic HBO series is based on the book "Band of Brothers" by historian Stephen Ambrose. Remember, this is NOT a documentary nor an actual reenactment, but rather a series with characters representing the actual men, with their real names, of East Company, 2nd Battalion, 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment of the 101st Airborne Division. The series does present events and actions that the men of Easy Company related to Stephen Ambrose, the historian who wrote the book. In the book's "Acknowledgements and Sources," Ambrose writes that he "circulated the manuscript of this book to the men of Easy Company." He goes on to say there were criticisms, corrections and suggestions offered by the men, and that Richard Winters and Carwood Lipton were heavily involved in reviewing the book, the original publication of which was in 1992, while the first airing of the miniseries was in 2001.

As I write about this series, I'll likely use a man's army rank on occasion, but for the most part, I'll use last names, just as the men do. The cast of this series is so large, I decided not to list it, as it would have been overwhelming, although I did decide to list just a few names of the cast who portrayed the men most seen, most heard and most heard about in the stories presented in this series. Believe me, the whole cast is likely 8 or 10 times as large as those I list here, and everyone did a great job.

 

Partial Cast

 

Damian Lewis as Lieutenant, then Captain, then Major Richard Winters

Ron Livingston as Lieutenant, then Captain Lewis Nixon

Scott Grimes as Private, then Sergeant Donald Malarkey 

Shane Taylor as Medic Eugene "Doc" Roe

Donnie Wahlberg as Sergeant Carwood Lipton 

Michael Cudlitz as Sergeant Denver "Bull" Randleman

Frank John Hughes as Sergeant Bill "Wild Bill" Guarnere

Rick Gomez as Technician 4th Grade George Luz

Kirk Acevedo as Staff Sergeant Joe Toye

James Madio as Technician 4th Grade Frank Perconte

Eion Bailey as Private David Kenyon Webster

Dexter Fletcher as Sergeant John Martin

Ross McCall as Technician Fifth Grade Joseph Liebgott

Neal McDonough as Lieutenant Lynn "Buck" Compton

Nicholas Aaron as Private Robert "Popeye" Wynn 

David Schwimmer as Lieutenant, then Captain Herbert Sobel 

 

Here is the link to the previous article as Episode 8: The Last Patrol

https://pontificating-randy.blogspot.com/2023/09/band-of-brothers-episode-8-last-patrol.html?m=1

 

This episode takes place in the waning days of World War II, from the latter part of March, through April and up to about May 1 or 2, 1945. We see some German musicians on the street playing Beethoven's solemn "String Quartet No. 14 in C Sharp Minor (Op. 131)." The town has been heavily damaged in the war, and German civilians are clearing debris and trying to put things back in order, a characteristic Germans are known for, but there can be a dark side to that characteristic, too. So, we have German work ethic and desire to bring order to their damaged city; and this, set to the music of one of the greatest composers in history, who was a German; but, why do Germans keeping fighting for Hitler, in a war that has long ago been lost? Some of Easy Company's men are beginning to wonder why they are still in Europe, away from their families, and still at war.

 

We see some events during the first part of the episode that will be contrasted to the second part of the episode (these aren't necessarily in the proper chronology). George Luz and Frank Perconte are searching for eggs in the hen house of a German farm. A woman comes in and Luz tries his luck at "showing her how friendly Americans can be," but she slaps him across the face. We also see Captain Speirs take a couple of silver trays and silver candle holders to the Army Post Office, where Private Vest takes care of the regiment's mail. Speirs gives Vest a couple of packs of cigarettes to take care of sending these "souvenirs" to the Captain's family in the United States. Speirs tells Vest, "Finders keepers." We see the alcohol dependent Captain Nixon out late at night looking for Scotch in a heavy rain, but he's oblivious to the weather, as he breaks the front window of a German shop selling liquor. The owner lives up over the shop and he shouts out the window at Nixon, but to no avail. Nixon doesn't find a liquor to his liking.

 

This episode focuses on Major Winters' close friend, Captain Lewis Nixon, who is also known as "Lew" and "Nix." We soon see Nixon looking very serious after he gets out of a jeep, and when he goes to his quarters, he takes a couple of drinks of whiskey, and then, Winters comes in. We now learn that Nixon was involved in a parachute jump with some men of the U.S. 17th Airborne Division, but that the plane he was on was hit by German anti-aircraft fire, and only Nixon and two others survived (one book on the subject says Nixon and three others survived). The commanding officer of those who died also perished, so Nixon has been ordered to write to the parents of the young men killed on the plane, and it's not a job he's looking forward to doing. (Note: The 17th Airborne Division was involved in a large scale paratroop drop in the latter part of March, 1945 called Operation Varsity. The drop has been controversial since it took place, because it risked the lives of so many personnel, American, British and Canadian, when ground operations were making significant progress, with "seemingly" fewer casualties.) Nixon talks with Winters about what he should say to the parents, and we see how Nixon's feelings have turned downward, as when Winters says to tell the parents that their sons died as heroes, Nixon asks if Winters still believes that (for the record, Winters says he does). Nixon has to look around his quarters to find a bottle that still has whiskey in it, but most are empty. Winters tells Nixon that Colonel Sink has demoted Nixon from serving with the regimental staff (apparently because of Nixon's heavy drinking). Nixon will again serve in the 2nd Battalion staff. When Winters asks Nixon if he heard him say that he's being demoted, Nixon casually replies, "Yeah, demoted, gotcha." The troubled Nixon then goes back to talking about the men killed earlier that day. It takes us back to the D-Day episode, where the jittery Private Hall has his fears calmed by Winters, which brings out the courage in Hall (whose real name was "Halls"), who helps to destroy the German artillery battery, but who loses his life doing so. Winters sees Hall's body and kneels for a moment, but then he must continue the fight. At the end of the day, the situation is reversed from this current episode, as then it's Nixon asking Winters what's bothering him, and Winters tells him about Hall being killed that day. Nixon tries to divert his friend's thoughts, but after a tough day of fighting and killing, Winters takes some more time to be human.

Frank Perconte and recent replacement Private Patrick O'Keefe (played by Matt Hickey) walk along to their shift for outpost duty. O'Keefe asks when Perconte thinks they'll "be jumping into Berlin and see some real action," which brings a swift and tough reply by Perconte about O'Keefe being a replacement. The two men relieve Hashey (played by Mark Huberman) and Garcia (played by Douglas Spain), but O'Keefe stays busy and checks the post machine gun, while humming a happy song, much to the annoyance of Perconte, who is trying to read a book, and who is still rankled by O'Keefe's desire to see action. Twice Perconte tells "O'Brien" (he gets his name wrong, with O'Keefe correcting him) to relax, but now Perconte really turns it on. He tells O'Keefe that he's like all of the replacements, desiring action and chomping at the bit to fight Germans, but that within a few days, they're lying there bleeding and with their guts hanging out, "screaming for a medic and begging for their godd---ed mothers." He continues that this is the best part of the war for him, because he's got "hot chow, hot showers, a warm bed ... I even got to wipe my a-- with real toilet paper today." Perconte finishes by telling the young man, who just left the U.S. two weeks before, "It's been two years since I seen home... This f---in' war!" 

The scene shifts to Winters and Speirs discussing plans in front of a wall map. Nixon steps into the room and says, "The president is dead." (Note: President Franklin Roosevelt died on the afternoon of April 12, 1945, from a cerebral hemorrhage in Warm Springs, Georgia. Because of time difference, it was nighttime in Germany.)

Nixon is still on a quest for Vat 69 whiskey, and he goes to Private Vest (played by Kiernan O'Brien), who takes care of the mail, but who is also something of a contact for other favors. Vest tells Nixon that now that they are in Germany, that brand of scotch whiskey will be hard to find, and that it will be very expensive if it is found. Nixon comes from a wealthy family, and he tells Vest to try to get him the whiskey, regardless of the cost. Vest gives Nixon a letter that has come for him, and Private Janovec (played by Tom Hardy) comes in and tells them that 300,000 Germans just surrendered, and that the unit is "moving out in one hour." (Note: The Germans who surrendered had been encircled in the German industrial area called "the Ruhr.") When Nixon reads his mail, he finds out that his wife is divorcing him and that "she's taking everything. She's taking the house, the kid, the dog ... It's not even her dog, it's MY DOG," he shouts as he throws his helmet. And no scotch to help him drown his sorrows (and anger). (In an earlier episode, Nixon talks about finding a "certain young lady," where they were stationed in England. He had been seeing her at that time, and I believe his wife may have gotten word of it. Understand, this information is not in the miniseries.)

The men get into trucks and DUKWs, commonly called "ducks," which were combined land and amphibious vehicles, that looked a good bit like landing craft. They are heading into Bavaria, in southern Germany, and as Webster says, "the birthplace of National Socialism" (Nazism). Captain Speirs tells them the Allied commanders feel the Nazis will try to form a resistance movement from Waffen SS troops in the mountains of Bavaria and Austria (the Alps). Perconte tells O'Keefe, "It looks like your gonna get your wish, O'Flannery (getting his name wrong again), those (Waffen SS) guys, they're f---in' crazy." O'Keefe simply replies, "It's O'Keefe." As the column moves along, the men sing the famous paratrooper song "Blood on the Risers" (also known as "Gory, Gory, What a Helluva Way to Die," as it is set to the music of "The Battle Hymn of the Republic"). The men stop and takeover a German family's home for the night, before moving on again ("presumably" they took over other homes as accommodations for all the men.) Surrendered German troops are seen all along the highway (Autobahn), and Webster yells out to them, "You stupid fascist pigs... You ignorant, servile scum! What the f--- are we doing here?" A few seconds earlier, he told the other guys in the truck, "Dragging our a--es halfway around the world. Interrupting our lives. FOR WHAT?" As the column moves on, the men see two French soldiers bring three German soldiers out of a building, put them on their knees and shoot them in the back of their heads. O'Keefe is stunned and he turns to Perconte, who shrugs his shoulders.

The company comes upon a Nazi concentration camp near Landsberg am Lech in southern Bavaria, located about 40 miles west of Munich.(Note: The 101st Airborne Division did not actually discover the concentration camp, as is shown in the series, but rather the men of the 101st entered the camp the next day, after its discovery by the U.S. 10th Armored Division.) Landsberg is the city where Adolf Hitler served part of his sentence for the "Beer Hall Putsch" in the 1920s, and it was during that time that Hitler wrote his book "Mein Kampf" (My Struggle). If you've never seen "Band of Brothers," or at least this episode, it is something I hope you will see, because no written account can describe the horrendous conditions in the camp; you need to see it for yourselves. (Note: This was a subcamp of  the infamous Dachau concentration camp, not far from Munich. It was termed "Kaufering IV," as there were other subcamps of Dachau.) Major Winters has the men open the camp gate, and he and the men enter as prisoners come to even just touch the American troops. Liebgott translates for Winters, Nixon, Spiers and some of the men, as he talks with one of the inmates, who tells him that the guards fled in the morning, but that they first shot as many of the prisoners as they could, and that they also set fire to some of the barracks, with live prisoners still in them. The camp is full of Jews, their only "crime" being their ethnicity in Nazi eyes. He tells them there is a women's camp at the next train station. Many of the stunned paratroopers hold handkerchiefs over their noses to try to keep out the stench. Some of the guys enter the living areas and they find them packed with sick, starving men, too weak to stand up. (Earlier, in Landsberg itself, Nixon enters a house looking for whiskey, and he finds liquor, but not a type he wants. He sees a picture of an older German officer and he picks it up, looks at it and tosses it to the floor, breaking the glass. He also sees a picture of the officer's wife, who enters the room without a word, folds her arms and glares at Nixon, who looks at her, lays the picture down and walks to the door and leaves.)

Winters orders Nixon and Spiers to get food and water from the town to help the desperate camp inmates. They get cheese from one business and bread from a bake shop, the owner of which rants against the men (the baker is played by Hans-Georg Nenning). Webster tells the guy to shut up a couple of times, but when he continues yelling, Webster takes out his pistol, grabs the owner by the collar and shoves him onto a table; then, he puts the pistol right to the man's head and says, "Shut up you Nazi f--k!" The man says he's not a Nazi, which then brings Webster to say, "You fat f--king pr--k! ... How about a human being, are you one of those, or are you going to tell me you never smelled the f---ing stench?" Anyway, the men go back to the camp and start distributing the food and water. 

After a while Colonel Sink, the regimental commander, comes in and he has the regimental doctor (played by Corey Johnson) with him, who tells them that they have to stop giving the prisoners food, because it could actually kill them, and that the prisoners will have to be kept in the camp until proper accommodations can be found, where food and water can be given to them under medical supervision. The men are shocked to hear that they will have to lock the inmates up again, and translator Liebgott says "I can't tell them that, sir," but Winters tells him, "You have to, Joe." Liebgott tells the inmates in German that they have to remain in the camp for a short time. Later, back in Landsberg, Winters tells Nixon that 101st divisional headquarters passed along information that Allied troops have been discovering concentration camps all over the place, and that the Russians had found one ten times bigger than the one outside Landsberg, and that it had execution chambers and ovens to cremate the bodies. (Note: This is an obvious reference to the most infamous of all camps, Auschwitz.) THIS IS WHY WE FIGHT! It is bigger than any one person, or any group of people. HUMANITY. General Maxwell Taylor, the commander of the 101st Airborne Division, orders the citizens of Landsberg to bury the dead at the camp the next day. We see German civilians dragging bodies and shoveling dirt. Nixon spots the woman who glared at him earlier at her house, but now he glares at her, until see looks away.

The scene returns to where the episode began, with the musicians nearing the end of Beethoven's song. Nixon tells some of the men that Hitler's dead, and Randleman asks, "Is the war over, sir?" Nixon says "No," and he tells them they are moving out in one hour, destination ... Berchtesgaden. (For those unaware, Berchtesgaden was where Hitler's villa in the Alps was located, with Salzburg only about 25 miles away.)

Photo is of the HBO 2015 Blu-Ray Miniseries release ...

WORD HISTORY:

Nasty-This word has an uncertain history; thus, relatives are lacking. One thing is certain; that is, "nasty" did not come from political cartoonist Thomas Nast in the 1800s, as "nasty" had been around well before Nast was born in Germany and emigrated to the United States with his family as a child; however, his later political views were often expressed in harsh cartoons, especially about Catholics and Irish immigrants. For critics, this made his family name fit in perfectly with "nasty" (Note: He was originally Catholic himself, having been baptized as such upon his birth in Germany, but he converted to Protestantism when in his early 20s in the United States). His connection with "nasty" undoubtedly made the word more common in the U.S. So, why do we have the word at all? Well, there are theories, but no conclusive proof. As far as I could find, the word appears in the late 1300s with the meaning "dirty, foul," and with spellings like "naxty," "nasky," "nasti" and "nasty." Some believe English borrowed the word from one of the North Germanic languages, as Swedish has "naskig" (meaning "nasty, messy") and Danish has "nasket" (dirty, filthy), and also possible is Dutch (which is, like English, West Germanic) "nestich," which became "nestig" (dirty, from the underlying meaning, "dirty as a bird's nest"), and there is always the possibility that it's from an Old English form, which was then reinforced by Old Norse. Whatever the case, the 1600s saw the "dirty" meaning expanded to morality; thus, "obscene." The meaning expanded further to include "mean, bad tempered, annoying, unpleasant."